Congatec invests in functional safety for edge computing platforms
Congatec says it plans to make a large investment in the functional safety of embedded computing platforms that are used in a range of applications, including industrial automation and robotics to autonomous vehicles and smart retail. Functional safety — which reduces hazards by designing systems to be safe during normal operations — is an important consideration because of the use of edge computing in areas such as healthcare and various mission-critical operations.
As part of the functional safety program, Congatec brings IEC 61508 and ISO 13849 certifications for functional safety (FuSa) standards for its embedded x86 multicore embedded platforms. Congatec has already developed functional safety modules, board support packages (BSPs) and software components with support for customizations. The company is also able to support its OEM customers with component selection and implementation on carrier boards, operating systems, hypervisor support, or I/O driver implementation.
“Functionally safe hardware and hardware near software are fundamental building blocks for any functional safety application and require a detailed look at all components. OEMs who utilize a Computer-on-Module as an application-ready building block — including relevant software components such as bootloader, hypervisor and BSP — that are already certifiable for functional safety can save a lot of time and money. They will then only need to qualify the customer-specific carrier board and related adaptations for certification,” said Konrad Garhammer, CTO at Congatec.
Along with the announcement, Congatec and S.I.E. announced the development of multiple service offerings for IT/OT systems dedicated to the medical edge computing systems and healthcare sector. At the Embedded World 2022, the company demonstrated two new medical edge computing systems, Carna and Athene, which were developed in collaboration with OEM customer Secunet.
The news of co-creation services comes as an extension of the previously announced strategic partnership between Congatec and System Industrie Electronic GmbH (S.I.E), a provider of OEM platforms.
For instance, the Secunet Carna platform will enable the digital transformation of the existing medical device infrastructure. This platform can be used as a proof of concept to customize existing platforms and even evaluate the integration of new platforms. Other than the healthcare sector, these two companies also aim to target the embedded and edge computing markets for critical infrastructure, including the financial and insurance sector, water and energy utilities, information technology and telecommunications, and transportation and traffic that depend on cyber-secure systems for IT infrastructure.
Article Topics
Congatec | embedded computing | ISO | Secunet | security | standards | worker safety
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